Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure (2 page)

She starting walking and the group quickly followed.  Sam
looked at Robert with a confused look painted on his face.

“Is it me, or are these guys crazy?” he asked.

“Yeah, but for all this trouble you know the game is going
to be good!  And did you hear who’s making the game?” asked Robert.

“Of course I did!  It’s why I’m still following this lady to
what’s bound to be the adult equivalent of a school bus.”

They all gathered out back and left the building in small
groups to board the bus.  Seemed like Full Core didn’t want to raise too much
attention by having a large group of people outside at once.  Sam and Robert
seated themselves on the mid-sized white bus and soon the buses pulled off, one
at a time every few minutes.  Their bus drove a few miles east before driving
into another underground parking lot.  Sam’s group exited the bus and was led
down a cool tunnel into a rather lavish building brimming with all sorts of
gaudy technology.  There were huge screens just about everywhere with scrolling
scenes of rainforests filled with colorful exotic animals, oceans with
sparkling clean blue water and massive sea life, and dank dark caves with
slithering creatures.  They were ushered forward before Sam got to see the
rest.  He wondered if the images were real or virtual.

1 We’re Here

The room that Anna led them to looked to be some kind of
standing theater.  There was a single large screen hanging over the group which
wrapped halfway around the circular room.  The screen was blank, so Sam instead
focused on the lovely Anna as she made her way up to a small stage.

“Okay, everyone, we are now here at our official studio.  A
few floors above us, the programmers, designers, engineers, and other
developers are hard at work making their final preparations for the test. 
Below us is where your Dream Chairs are located.  That’s where you will be
stationed for the duration of this alpha test.  Our project doesn’t have an
official title yet, and the developers have had the toughest time thinking of a
way to condense everything the game is about into two simple words.  I’ve
brought you here to this room to show off some of the game footage that we’ve
captured.  Are you all ready?”

A collective “yeah,” boomed throughout the spacious room. 
Anna’s micro mic broadcasted her playful laugh then she signaled for the lights
to be cut.  The chatter fell to pure silence as the group was covered in dark. 
Anna quickly shuffled off the stage and the huge screen displayed a bloodshot
moon with symphonic background music playing from the speakers in the walls. 
The moon was soon engulfed in flames as a woman’s siren like voice cried out in
a haunting soprano solo.  Soon the video cut to a chaotic battle between two
kingdoms.  There were knights on either side, rushing forward on horses and on
foot with swords or lances in hand.  The battlefield was already littered with
the dead and even more fell as the fighting intensified.  The camera panned to
two opposing captains then to a solitary man, an old grey-beard dressed in
light armor with a dark cloak over it.  The old man wielded what Sam thought
was a broadsword in his right hand.  He smirked then ripped his cloak off and
revealed huge muscular arms clutching a handful of fire in his left hand which
grew bigger and bigger until it exploded and engulfed the whole battlefield. 
The screen cut to a spiky red dragon flying through a blue sky.  The scaly
dragon landed on a rocky cliff and breathed an unending stream of flame unto a
group of four adventurers who were trying to hide below it.  The next screen
was of a female mage fighting some kind of giant clad in armor.  She
acrobatically dodged his attacks and held up her staff, retaliating with a
cluster of fast moving blue energy spheres that pierced the creature’s armor. 
There were then huge sweeping shots of several gorgeous vistas, including
gigantic mountains, decrepit cities, a lava-filled volcano, a dark forest with
skulls strewn about the ground, a green hilly valley, a roiling blue ocean,
then there was a montage of intense and creatively designed creatures, creatures
that Sam knew he would soon have to come face to face with.  After that was a
montage of deaths from all sorts of characters like knights, assassins, wizards,
and what looked to be a cleric.  Another round of deaths, most likely player
deaths, was broadcast in first person, each one more gruesome than the last,
with the final one being getting ripped in half and eaten by a giant Cyclops
looking monster.  The video ended with a montage of various weapons and spells
being used.  Once the lights came back on, Sam swallowed hard and breathed
deep.  He was definitely ready to play now.

“That was pretty kickass, right?  And from the looks on many
of your faces, terrifying.  Okay, come on, everyone.  We have one more person
to meet before we get you all strapped in and logged into the game world.”

Anna then made her way through the crowd back to the door
they came in through.  She led them down the hall and into a huge room filled
with padded reclining game chairs, arranged in rows and spaced out to allow a
person to pass comfortably on each side.  There looked to be medical attendants
all around, mostly women.  In the middle of the room was a tall woman who stood
out from the rest of the staff.  They were all wearing blue and white scrubs,
yet she had on a green and white lab coat with what looked like professional
office clothes underneath.  She was wearing a skirt like Anna’s, only hers was
longer and white.  The woman’s long hair was tied into one thick braid and was
a redder shade of auburn and her eyes were brown.  Anna walked up to the woman
and waved her hand over her as if displaying a prize.

“This, ladies and gents, is Alanna Moxley.  She will be
looking after you while you use our Dream Chairs and Full Dive headset.  I will
pass it over to her in a moment to explain more of the technical details about
the medical facilities, but right now I’d like to say more about Full Core’s
virtual technology.  Show of hands, who here has heard of the lucid dream
control theory?”

Sam and Robert raised their hands, along with a handful of
others.

“That’s more than I expected.  To summarize, for those of
you who are not familiar, the theory posits that lucid dreams—a very powerful
and vivid visual medium—can indeed be controlled.  The theory suggests that not
only can lucid dreams be controlled, but they can be created.  Scientists have
been looking at ways to create new dreams for decades now.  They used music,
suggestion, art, and symbolism but none of them have yet used the most obvious
tools: game creation software.  We here at Full Core Studios, are led by a
master in the field of full immersion virtual reality.  His name is Fulton
Milner and he is the director and lead designer of this very project.  What he
has done is quite brilliant.  He used electronic tools to enhance brainwaves
and has found a way to mix these brainwaves—that are most active during lucid
dreaming—with his own game program and has created the most immersive videogame
ever made.  This is possible through the breakthrough technology of the Miyabi
Full Dive headset and the Dream Chairs, which Mr. Milner has created just for
this game.  We here at Full Core are proud to say that we have created a game
with the absolute maximum level of immersion.  Every other VR program that has
come before is now what we call half-diving.  And believe me, as much as we’d
like to brag, we’re not.  But I suppose you’ll just have to experience it for
yourself,” she explained.

Anna winked, bowed, then walked over and stood behind
Alanna.  Sam thought a little about the lucid dreaming theory.  It was a mostly
safe science, but it was the sort of thing that scared a lot of people. 
Everyone was always on the lookout for negative psychological effects and dream
manipulation had always seemed like it’d be a one way ticket to an eventual
mental breakdown.  The science just didn’t agree, at least when it came to
those who were well adjusted.  Those with a history of mental illness were the
most susceptible to any negative effects, but even those were negligible. 
Alanna stepped forward and addressed the group, her voice projecting a heavy
English accent.

“Hello everyone!  Welcome to the dream room!  I am Full
Core’s resident medical authority, Alanna Moxley.  I am here to look after you
while you are immersed in the Miyabi Full Dive virtual world.  Today I will be
explaining all about our little facility here.  Let’s start with the Dream Chairs. 
They are there to provide comfort to each of you testers and to also help
immerse you even deeper into your game worlds.  They are made with infused
memory foam to shape to your bodies and have small speakers and subtle vibration
features installed.  We will be strapping everyone down to the chairs with
Velcro wrist and ankle restraints.  Don’t be alarmed, it’s not some BDSM
experiment, I can assure you,” she explained.

The group laughed, which Sam noticed alleviated much of the
tension that had been building, mainly his own.  Alanna continued.

“The restraints are for your own safety and the safety of
our medical staff.  A small percentage of people’s bodies may react to what
they’re seeing in the game world.  It’s usually quick, sporadic hand and leg
movements.  It’s very unpredictable and our medical attendants are always
patrolling, so it’s best to restrain those limbs to avoid potential injuries. 
Now I’d like you all to go ahead and pick a seat and we will begin.”

Sam and Robert hurried down the aisle and grabbed two chairs
across from one another.

“For those of you who can’t find chairs, follow me to the
next room,” Anna yelled, over the commotion.

Anna left the room with a huge group of people in tow. 
Alanna issued orders to those who remained in this room.

“Alright you all, sit back.  The attendants will stop by
each of your Dream Chairs and secure you with your restraints and hook you up
to the heart, body, and blood pressure monitors.  While you are playing, we
will be diligently monitoring you.  If any of you have any negative reactions,
we’ll know immediately and we’ll stop the game.  Remember also that you can log
out of the game if you feel any sort of deleterious health effects.  You’ll
receive further instructions once you are inside the virtual world.  If any of
you have to use the restroom, I suggest doing it now.”

If not for all the buzzing around him and his own perpetual excitement,
Sam would have easily been able to fall straight asleep in the Dream Chair.  He
and Robert were soon strapped to their chairs via restraints on their wrists
and ankles.  The restraints were rather loose, giving Sam as comfortable a
range of movement as he could get while still being restrained.  They also
weren’t as abrasive as he thought they’d be.

Soon after that, they hooked him and Robert up to a tiny device
that monitored their heart rates, blood pressure, and other data from their
bodies.  The device was much more sophisticated than the one they sold in
stores and was completely wireless.  The devices were set directly against
their chests, under their shirts.  Then the headgear was brought out and it
looked as cutting edge as Anna had said and was sort of intimidating, all black
and glossy and maybe too small to fit his head.  There was a large opening at
the front where Sam guessed his mouth and nose would go.  It reminded him of
the over-the-top classic movie Robocop.  Inside the mask was a network of
gadgets, mostly concentrated around the ears, eyes, temples, and top of the
head.

The young woman smiled as she approached and stretched the
headgear out to fit Sam’s head.  It was definitely snug, uncomfortable even,
and seemed to tighten a bit when she snapped it on.  Sam could hear electronic
buzzing and clicking inside the headgear as several mechanisms shifted around. 
He couldn’t see much inside of the dark headgear, but he did see some kind of
visor or screen shift down in front of his eyes.

He was now at his wits end waiting for the darn thing to
boot up.  He squeezed his fingers and felt his fleshy limbs squirming
impatiently against the Velcro restraints.  Worse than that, he felt the sweat
pooling and dripping all over his rotund body from his head all the way down
his pits then to his toes.  His excitement was building.  He hadn’t gotten to
alpha test any VR games in a long while and never had he tested a fantasy
simulation.  He had no clue what to expect.  He could hear the animated
whispers and excited whimpers of all the other lucky alpha testers around him
who were also strapped up in comfortable recliners and unable to see.  Sam
yelled out to Robert, who he had quickly forgotten was across the aisle from
him.

“You ready buddy?  It’s about to get real.”

“Dude, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop shaking until they
start it,” Robert yelled back.

Sam could hear Robert nervously laughing and he laughed as
well.

There was a sudden whirring in the headset and all the
talking in the room quickly died down to mere murmurs.  The headset tightened
itself even more on Sam’s head, some kind of headphones inside it cupping
tightly around his ears.  He couldn’t hear anything but the seashell effect and
he panicked a little bit at the seeming sentience of the machine.  Chills ran
down his spine as a quiet voice travelled through the headphones into his ears.

“Hello and thank you, alpha testers.  I am the lead designer
of this game, Fulton Milner.  In a few minutes you will be in a virtual world created
by me and my talented team of artist, designers, and programmers at Full Core
Studios.”

It was the voice of the genius who spearheaded the game.  He
sounded calm and confident, like most of the other tech geniuses when they did
presentations at their annual conferences.

“This whole project has been a labor of love and intense
effort for all of us, but we need you to help us make it into true perfection. 
I’m counting on you all.  With that said, we’re offering bonuses to the best of
the best alpha testers.  Those who give us their all in finding errors we could
not find ourselves.  Right from the start, we’ll be giving a monetary bonus of seventy-five
percent added to your current pay rate to the first person to find five game
breaking glitches.  We’ll also be rewarding testers for reaching all sorts of
milestones within the game.”

Sam’s breath caught in his throat for a second.  If he could
get that bonus, he could actually treat himself to something other than instant
ramen and lunchmeat sandwiches.  Hell, he could even get some extra art
supplies for his next commission, whenever that would happen.

“It probably won’t be possible to find very many glitches. 
You can thank my world class elite team for that.  If any of you miraculously
find any more than that, we will decide on an even greater reward.  We haven’t
planned anything yet because we don’t think it’s possible.  It’s up to you to
prove us wrong.  Of course, lesser bugs are to be found and reported as well. 
We expect full reports from all of you, even those who don’t find bugs.  We
will walk you through the reporting process as we go.  Go forth, alphas, and
work hard, so we can make the best game possible, but remember to play even
harder.  In one minute, we’ll start the countdown.”